When is sweet not so sweet

Most parents have a pretty simple goal: They want their kids to be as healthy as possible.

When it comes to drinks, the safest, simplest way to make that happen is to serve water or low-fat milk, and no more than one small glass of 100% juice or 100% juice diluted with water a day. But there are a lot of choices out there. So, as so often is the case in parenting, it’s not always simple.

A lot of drinks have added sweeteners. That may not be so bad. If your concern is obesity, you want to steer clear of sweeteners that are high in calories. Sugar is the most obvious example. So you might choose a non-caloric sweetener, such as aspartame (an ingredient in many diet drinks).

However, there is a debate over whether even low-calorie sweeteners lead to weight gain, perhaps by reinforcing an expectation of sweetness in food. What’s more, some parents like to avoid anything labeled as “artificial.” That’s where things get confusing. So we placed sweeteners into three groups:

Natural: Sweeteners most experts say are not synthetic and require minimal processing. These are the kind of ingredients your grandmother might have used – cane sugar, molasses, honey, fruit juice, natural fruit essence, and so on.

Artificial: Sweeteners widely agreed to be synthetic and not naturally occurring. These include the sugar substitutes in diet drinks that are regulated by the FDA.

Hybrid: All other sweeteners, those some might describe as natural and others might see as artificial.

The hybrid group can be broken into subgroups. One subgroup would be “sugar alcohols,” which typically contain one-third to one-half as many calories as sugar. While sugar alcohols have many of the physical properties of sugar, they do not cause cavities and have only minimal impact on blood sugar levels. Common sugar alcohols include xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol, lactitol, isomalt, erythritol, and hydrogenated starch hydrosylate. Since they are not entirely absorbed by the body, excess consumption can cause gastrointestinal discomfort and diarrhea. Another sub-group is “novel” sweeteners, which are sweetening materials not previously known or used in the food supply. Some of these are marketed as “natural.”

Below is a look at all the sweeteners contained in beverages listed on this site, listed according to the group.

Natural Sweeteners

Cane sugar

Sugar extracted from sugarcane.

Date sugar

Unprocessed, finely chopped dates.

Maple syrup

Concentrated syrup left after water is evaporated from the sap of a maple tree.

Agave nectar

Concentrated syrup left after sap of the Blue Agave plant is extracted and heated.